Pros

Cons

Bottom Line

The Satechi IQ Plug is a Bluetooth-enabled smart outlet that lets you track power usage and turn connected devices on and off with your smartphone, but it only works within Bluetooth range.

30 May 2015John R. Delaney

Smart outlets provide an easy way to turn things on and off using your smartphone, and can help reduce energy consumption. With the $29.99 Satechi IQ Plug, you can also see how much power your devices are using and what they're costing you per day, week, and month. This diminutive Bluetooth outlet offers daily scheduling capabilities and an on/off timer, and it's a relatively affordable and simple way to start setting up your digital home. However, you must be in Bluetooth range of the plug to control it. The Editors' Choice Belkin WeMo Insight Switch is more expensive, but its Wi-Fi connectivity offers much more intricate control.

Design and Features At 1.8 by 1.6 by 1.3 inches (HWD), the IQ Plug is significantly smaller than competing smart outlets like the WeMo Insight (2.8 by 2.8 by 1.5 inches) and the Nyrius Smart Outlet (3.6 by 2.5 by 1.2 inches). That means it won't block access to an adjacent wall outlet. It uses a three-pronged plug and has a three-pronged socket on its face, along with a backlit Satechi logo that glows green when the power is on.

The IQ Plug uses embedded Bluetooth circuitry to communicate with your iOS and Android mobile devices, and has a (rated) maximum range of 49 feet, so you'll have to be fairly close to the outlet to control it. In comparison, Wi-Fi outlets like the D-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug and the Valta Starter Kit can be controlled from just about anywhere. Because the IQ Plug does not support Internet connectivity, you can't use third-party services like IFTTT (If This Then That) to trigger the outlet, nor will it integrate with home automation hubs from companies like SmartThings and Wink.

The free IQ Plug app has the same look and feel as the app used to control the Satechi Spectrum IQ Bulb. It opens to the Meters page, which lists installed outlets by name and shows how much power each one is currently drawing. You can power the outlet on and off from this screen.

Tapping an outlet name opens the Power screen for that outlet. Here you'll see a dial gauge ranging from 0 to 500 watts, as well as a digital readout showing how much power the outlet is using. A menu bar at the bottom of the page lets you navigate to the Energy screen, which displays daily, weekly, and monthly power usage in kilowatt hours (kWh). Tapping the Cost icon changes the display to your daily, weekly, and monthly cost based on the price of power per kWh. To input your local rate, tap the Cost icon in the upper right-hand corner and enter the current price you pay.

The Rules screen lets you create individual on and off schedules for each day of the week, or apply a schedule for the entire week. On the Timer screen, you can set a timer to turn off the outlet anywhere from one minute up to one day from the time you press Start. The Settings screen simply shows the firmware version and serial number for the outlet, and gives you the option of turning off the LED power indicator.

Installation and Performance Installing the IQ Plug is very easy, and takes less than a minute. Just download and launch the app and plug the outlet into a wall socket. Within seconds, the app will display the generic outlet name, which you can then rename from the Settings screen.

The IQ Plug performed flawlessly. It instantly reacted to my manual commands and never missed a scheduled on or off time. The usage meter was very accurate, exactly matching the power usage displayed on the P3 Kill A Watt meter that I use for testing monitor, HDTV, and laptop power consumption. Likewise, the timer turned the outlet off on cue. I was able to control the outlet from a distance of 40 feet in my home, but once I moved past that point I lost my Bluetooth connection and had to re-enter the 40 foot perimeter to establish connectivity with the plug again.

Conclusions The Satechi IQ Plug provides a relatively affordable way to control electronic devices from your iOS or Android device, and track how much power they draw. It offers daily and weekly scheduling, and is a cinch to install and use, but you have to be connected via Bluetooth, so you can't control it from outside of your home or use IFTTT recipes to turn things on and off. That said, it's ideal for couch potatoes on a budget. If you have an extra $30 to spend, the Editors' Choice Belkin WeMo Insight offers support for IFTTT recipes and can be controlled from anywhere, and it also monitors power usage.

About the Author

As a Contributing Editor for PC Magazine, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, HDTVs, PCs, servers, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for more than 14 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of the Labs technical staff, as well as evaluating and maintaining the integrity of the Labs testing machines and procedures.

Prior to joining Ziff Davis Publishing, John spent six years in retail operations for Federated Stores, Inc. before accepting a purchasing position with Morris Decision Systems, one of New York's first value-added resellers of the original IBM PC. For ... See Full Bio